Nearly half of Fremont County, Colorado, is federal or state public land, managed by government organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation. Cleve Lewis, VP of Empowerment at Pax8, hopes that in the next few years, it will also be home to a growing number of employees.
This vision comes as a result of a partnership between the cloud management software company and Upper Arkansas Tech Sector, a local initiative responsible for economic development in rural Colorado. Lewis and his colleagues have also been leveraging the Workplace Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA), a national legislation designed to help people with significant barriers to employment access high-quality jobs and careers. By hiring outside Denver, Lewis said, Pax8 will be able to diversify their talent. For every applicant Pax8 hires through WIOA, the government program will provide incentives for on-the-job training.
“Denver’s not a very diverse city,” Lewis, who works out of Atlanta, said. In addition to expanding into more rural areas, he plans to access talent across a variety of urban regions, including the city he currently — and proudly — calls home.
It’s not lost on Lewis that a byproduct of geographic expansion is more diversity surrounding racial, socioeconomic and religious representation. That said, he knows that the general makeup of Pax8 candidates won’t change overnight. Still, Lewis has lofty aspirations for the next 12 months.
“We have been awarded two different tax incentives to hire 1,855 folks in Colorado over the next eight years, and 55 must be rural.” Lewis said. “But honestly, we might be able to hire 55 rural people by the end of next year.”
Tell me about your background. What brought you to Pax8 and how did you get involved in the empowerment program?
I’ve spent 30 years in telecom sales and sales management. Prior to Pax8, I was regional VP at Comcast’s ‘Big South’ region for business services. I have also held sales leadership roles at Cbeyond, which is now Birch Communications, MCI and USA.NET.
I was recruited to Pax8 by CEO John Street to head initial sales and training efforts. With the rapid growth at Pax8, we wanted to address representation and equity within the company. I was asked to take on a new department, empowerment programs, to do so.
Our mission is to build an inclusive culture that encourages and celebrates diversity and inspires positive change and achievement in our people and communities.
How did your team come up with the upcoming strategic initiative to create a more diverse workforce?
The empowerment programs department was established in January 2020 to elevate diversity across Pax8 as a means to drive creativity and innovation. By the end of this year, we plan to employ talent within rural areas of Colorado and place Pax8 employees within rural communities to provide mentorship for community educational programs. We will also be collaborating with internships and apprenticeship programs.
In order to expand representation and equity across our employee population, we will be pursuing more diverse talent pools including BIPOC, veterans and LGBTQ candidates. We will also be providing education for our employees around social inequality, including employee-led social awareness committees, town hall meetings and unconscious bias training.
We realize that this change will not happen overnight. We are seeking incremental increases in our representation as we focus on our diversity initiative and strategy.
We are seeking incremental increases in our representation as we focus on our diversity initiative and strategy.’’
What have been the biggest challenges you have faced when outlining the initiative and how have you overcome them?
There were so many different things that we could do as a company to have a social impact. One of the biggest challenges was figuring out where we wanted to put our energy. We narrowed it down to three areas: diversity and inclusion, partnering with rural communities, and empowering Pax8 partners to help them better serve nonprofits.
COVID-19 accelerated us through this challenge. It’s pushed us into a remote-work model. Prior to COVID-19, we hired primarily from within the Denver metro area. Now that we are working in a more remote environment, we’re more effective with hiring. We’ve hired close to 100 people during the pandemic, many of them outside of the Denver area. And that involves adapting onboarding and training protocols. I believe we’ve moved quicker to be able to do that than we might have had we been in our regular office space.
What makes you confident in Pax8’s remote, rural hiring model?
Prior to COVID-19, hiring remotely was not a part of our active hiring strategy. But since then, we’ve seen great success in the model. It’s now in our strategy moving forward, including hiring rural remote workers. We have been awarded two different tax incentives to hire 1,855 folks in Colorado over the next eight years. We anticipate that a large amount of them will be working remotely. I’ve found that in order to make remote work productive, you must have the right equipment and tools. I also make sure to schedule one-on-ones on a consistent basis.
Many people have not been exposed to working remotely in a previous environment. Not having in-person contact with your peers can be a big adjustment. Managers play a role here by addressing loneliness and isolation.
Adopting a remote workforce can improve employee diversity, as it opens up a broader talent pool.’’
What do you see the future of tech looking like, from both a remote perspective and a diversity and inclusion perspective?
The changes brought upon the workforce have thrust companies into addressing what a remote workforce should look like. Luckily for Pax8, we have adapted well. We had the technology to be able to work remotely prior to COVID-19.
Adopting a remote workforce can improve employee diversity, as it opens up a broader talent pool. But companies need to ensure they are using these tools to support and promote inclusion despite the employee population not being together in the same building, or often city.
